This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The Specific Aims for Core A are: Aim 1. Provide administrative leadership and coordinate the overall research effort. Aim 2. Provide appropriate financial accounting, clerical, and other program management support. Aim 3. Establish and organize a group of established senior investigators who will serve as mentors for newly hired faculty working in the area of developmental biology. Aim 4. Manage and document the junior faculty mentoring process. Aim 5. Increase the research infrastructure and allow the implementation of new, state-of-the-art research equipment and technology centered on the project theme. Aim 6. Offer a source of expert outside consultation for optimization of research efforts in an individual and collective sense. Aim 7. Generate and insure the maintenance of cooperative, collaborative interactions between all components of this COBRE, and between other COBRE and BRIN centers and projects in Kansas.